First Nephew

My sister Tam had her baby this morning, with no epidural because he came so fast! Jonah Todd Jacobs was born at 5:00 am and weighed 7 lbs. 4 ozs. Congrats Tam and Todd! I wish we were there in Missouri to see him, but we are thinking about you. This is our first nephew and I am so excited to see pictures of him.

CLICK http://toddtamandpreslee.blogspot.com/ TO SEE PICTURES!!

Six Years

Today, Bryan and I are celebrating our sixth anniversary! It seems like only yesterday that we got married. I am so lucky to be Bryan's wife. He is such a hard worker and he is such a wonderful husband in every possible way!
Here's the story of how we met... we met at Snow College through my roommate Jess. She dated Bryan's best friend Cody's cousin (does that make sense?!), so Cody and Bryan came to our apartment to say hello to Jess. I still remember what Bryan was wearing that first night I met him. We got to talking and made the connection that I went to highschool with Bryan's cousin and that my dad served in the bishopric with his Uncle Brad, who I knew very well. Small world. It gets better. His Aunt Kerrilynn was my mom's Laurel teacher when she was growing up. We had lots of connections before we even knew each other. It was meant to be! Anyway, we became quick friends and my roommates and I would go to Cody and Bryan's house every night for scripture study. This started in September and we officially started dating in February. It was a shock to me when I realized that Bryan liked me- he was a returned missionary who didn't seem to care about much other than studying! I knew he was the one for me right from the beginning. We didn't talk about getting married until July, but we both knew it was the thing to do. We got officially engaged on September 14th and married on Dec. 27th, 2002. The past six years have been wonderful and it's hard to believe that that many years have gone by. I can't wait to spend many more years with Bryan and I am looking forward to the many adventures we have yet to experience. Love you B!

Our Christmas Adventure

Well, after two long days of trying to get to Utah, we finally made it. It started on Saturday at 9:00 am. We got to the airport and found out that our flight was delayed an hour and a half. That's okay, we can wait that long, right? Well, 12:00 came, 1:00 came, 2:00 came and we were still waiting. Finally, the ticket agent came over the speaker and said our plane had left JFK airport and we would be boarding as soon as it got to Burlington. 3:00 came, the plane from JFK lands and we are expecting to hear over the intercom that we would be boarding shortly. Instead, we hear the man say that our flight has been cancelled (due to weather) and that we can form a line to have questions answered and itinerary changed. Why the heck did they make us sit in the airport all day and then when the plane comes decide to cancel it?!! The weather had been bad all day, why not get us home or on other flights?! So, we had to go back downstairs and pick up our luggage- that took another two hours. At 5:30 pm we finally make it home after sitting in the airport all day with two little girls who have had enough. (Thanks to our friends the Randalls for picking us up and taking us to their house to eat and hang out. It was a good distraction from our anger and disappointment!) Niah was so sad that we couldn't go to Grandma's house that day. She cried for a good hour. I felt like crying too. Bryan got us on a flight the next day, Sunday, flying out of Boston. That starts our next adventure. After a disappointing night at home, we get up and leave for Boston at 8:45 am to catch a 4:57 pm flight. We thought that would be plenty of time! The whole drive was white out conditions and a huge blizzard. All the while I'm thinking, 'we are never going to get to Utah with this weather.' What should have been a 3 1/2 hour drive turned into a six hour drive. Traffic conditions were horrible and we got stuck in traffic for about 30 minutes, not that long, right?, but when you are driving in a big city and don't know how you are going to make it safely and on time, it's a little (okay a lot) nerve racking. We pulled into the airport parking at 3:10 pm and had to rush onto the shuttle and make it to the airport terminal. When we got there the line was soooo long. A nice man at the ticket counter helped us get to the front and we made it through. By the time we got to the gate we had ten minutes to catch our breath before we boarded the plane. We feel so lucky to have made it in just the knick of time, any later and we would have been toast. So we finally get on the plane but then we had to sit there for an hour and a half while they deiced and waited for the runway to open. I seriously thought we would not be coming home for Christmas! We were an hour late getting into SLC but we made it and it felt so good to be home with family. Thankfully, the girls were really, really good. They were troopers and I'm sooooo grateful for that. I sure hope we don't have this kind of experience going back to Vermont. After many prayers and little miracles, we are here with our family and I'm so glad! It's a true blessing that we made it home for Christmas.

So Excited

Christmas Eve 2007

(What happened to Chloe?!! She has grown up so much in the last year!)

As Christmas gets closer, I am getting so excited to be with family and to see my girls with our families. They aren't around them all the time so I feel like our families don't really know them, sad but true. I am sad that my sister Tam won't be in Utah with us, but she is getting ready for their sweet little boy to join the family in a couple of weeks. We will miss you Jacobs family!

Here are a few things I'm looking forward to while we are in Utah...

-Seeing my dad's new cabin. We will be there for a few days before Christmas and we are also spending Christmas Eve and Day up there.

-Going to a movie on Christmas Eve, Forbes Family tradition.

-Not being able to sleep the night before Christmas. Yes, I still get that excited!

-Seeing my girls on Christmas morning. They will love it. Chloe is even catching on this year.

-Eating a good meal made by my mom.

-Letting the girls play with their cousins who live in Aurora, Utah. They have so much fun together.

-Spending New Year's Eve with Bryan's family. His mom makes an awesome Chinese food dinner that I have only had once in our married life!

-Visting with Grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc that we haven't seen for a while.

-Eating at Cafe Rio, The Old Spaghetti Factory, and all the other great restaurants in Utah.

-Going to Target.

These are just a few that I can think of right now. There are many other things that I am looking forward to. It will be so much fun! I can't wait!

Meeting Santa

Saturday, we went to our ward Christmas breakfast. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved meeting Santa and singing Christmas songs. The girls love the song Angels We Have Heard on High. Both girls are really good at singing the 'Gloria' part! Niah loved Santa. She was a little shy, but she told him that she wants princess drums for Christmas.

This is about as close as Chloe would get. She was waving to him and saying, "ho ho ho" while waiting in line, but she didn't want to sit on his lap once it was her turn. I thought she would be friendly, but I guess you never know how kids will react!

Mrs. Clause was reading stories to the kids while others met Santa. I think this was Niah's favorite part. She was so intrigued by Mrs. Clause. She kept staring at her face while she was reading!

Chloe loved her bag of treats from Santa. That's probably the only reason she got as close to him as she did! It made her whole day.
We had a lot fun at the party. It was great to visit with ward members and get filled with more Christmas spirit!

Christmas Tag

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Change all the answers so that they apply to you. And tag a few friends to spread the Christmas joy!
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper! I love picking out cute paper and then finding cute ribbon to go with it.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Growing up, my brother was allergic to real trees so we have always had artificial ones. We have an artificial one now, maybe someday we will have a real one.
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually Thanksgiving weekend.
4. When do you take the tree down? I try to get it down by the first week of January.
5. Do you like eggnog? I love it!! I haven't even had any this year, sad.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? There are lots, but one that sticks out is the 'my child' doll I got when I was six or seven.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Parents. They already have everything and if they don't they just go out and buy it!
8. Easiest person to buy for? Niah. She wants everything she sees!
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, we have four. One nice one and three that the girls play with.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail! Does an e-card even count??
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't think of one.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Growing up it was 'One Magic Christmas'. Now it's probably 'It's a Wonderful Life' or 'Elf'.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? It depends, around October.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everything!! One thing that sticks out are the orange rolls my mom makes on Christmas morning. They are so yummy. Oh, and Grandma Beulah's slush.
16. Lights on the tree? Of course!!
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night and Breath of Heaven.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Both. One year my family went to Hawaii for Christmas and it was so much fun.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We have a star.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning. We open one present on Christmas Eve though- pajamas.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Not having enough money to buy people really cool gifts.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? My grandma gave us a new ornament every year for Christmas, these are my favorites. I hope to have a fancy tree decorated with these one day.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? It's been a while so I can't remember what we usually have. I think we ate ham, funeral potatoes, and things like that. I know it was always really good.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I think I asked for a camera, photoshop, a new down comforter. I want too much I can't remember exactly what I asked for! (Now I just sound greedy and ungrateful!)

I now tag all of my sisters, all of Bryan's sisters, and anyone else who is reading this that wants to do it!

Christmas Spirit!

Christmas is such a fun time of year! Our Christmas elf, Charlie, made his appearance last week and I think Chloe is more into him than Niah, surprisingly. The first night that Charlie came he wrote a cute letter and brought the girls some blinking Christmas socks. I thought they were cute and I thought the girls would like them too. When Niah woke up and saw that he didn't bring toys, she threw a huge fit. So, Charlie didn't bring anything else for a few nights- Niah was in a little bit of trouble. I'm hoping she doesn't react this way on Christmas morning. In my frustration, I told Niah she needed to stop acting like a spoiled brat (probably not the best thing to say to my daughter, but I was bugged!). The next day she was mad at me for something and told me to stop being a spoiled rat! I was laughing pretty hard.
Last night, Charlie built himself a house out of the girls' blocks. Niah told me that someone else must have built it because Charlie is not real. What a little stinker. Here's our Christmas tree. The girls had fun decorating it with me.

I bought the girls' Christmas dresses at Baby Gap this year. I saw them and I really couldn't resist them. I thought they were too cute, and they are my favorite color. The girls wore them to church yesterday and they looked beautiful.

We are all very excited for Christmas this year. It will be so much fun to spend it with family. The girls get to meet Santa on Saturday so stay tuned for that post!